Daily Slice: The Grapeful Dead at Paulie Gee's, NYC

Daily Slice gives a quick snapshot each weekday of a different slice or pie that the folks at the Serious Eats empire have enjoyed lately. Here's one for the unofficial 'Grapes on Pizza Day' at Slice. (Or maybe it should be 'Grapes on Pizza Week'?!)

[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

What do you do when you have vegan or lactose intolerant friends and a craving for pizza? You take them to Paulie Gee's, which has some of the best truly vegan pies I've laid eyes on.

Sure, you can get plenty close to vegan pizzas, such as a plain marinara, but all too often they're laced with "just a sprinkle" of parmesan, or the sauce is cooked with "just a pat" of butter. It's sad but true—when eating out vegan, Italian (or Italian American) food just isn't your friend.

But at Paulie Gee's, vegan pies are conceptualized from the ground up without meat or dairy. One great example is the Grapeful Dead ($15), a pie topped with spinach, pickled grapes, and nutritional yeast. It's not just good "for vegan pizza"—it's plain delicious. The slightly vegetal spinach is sweetened by lightly spiced pickled grapes, a combination that sounds weird in your head but works perfectly on the plate. Nutritional yeast provides the perfect parmsesan-like punch, so nutty and savory your omnivorous friends will love it, too.

And don't tell Paulie I said so, but I think this pizza is great with some Mike's Hot Honey. He chastised me for making the pizza too sweet (the pickled grapes are more sweet than sour), but I don't think wilted spinach ever had a better friend than that hot stuff.